Preparing a meal, coming together around a table and breaking bread help unite people in a universal ritual of friendship.

At Oregon State University, the Cultural Meal Program, an offering of the Office of Student Involvement, brings the campus together to share foods from different countries.

Next week, Robin Ryan, coordinator of Student Involvement, and eight students on the Student Involvement and Peer Advising Team will attend the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in San Francisco, where they'll present on the Cultural Meal Program.

Other OSU offices also will attend the conference, including representatives from Difference, Power and Discrimination and Diversity Development.

The Cultural Meal Program is funded by student fees, and operates out of an industrial kitchen in Memorial Union East reserved for student-catered events.

This year, Student Involvement will support about 80 cultural meals, Ryan said. These include the popular International Spring Festival, which occurred earlier this month and served about 2,000 meals, and India Night, which drew about 1,400 people in April.

Some weekends two, three or even four cultural meals are scheduled for the same evening, so the kitchen is a melting pot of languages, cuisines and cultures.

"One day we had a pow-wow group making salmon chowder and beef stew, Filipino students doing production for Filipino Night and the Residence Hall Advisory Council making barbeque for 400 all at once," she said.

Not many other colleges and universities have something similar to OSU's Cultural Meal Program, so Ryan hopes the presentation she and students will give at the conference will encourage more schools to explore different heritages through food.

That's a desire shared by Ammara Tan, a junior majoring in health management and policy, and an event specialist for Student Involvement.

Tan is one of the students accompanying Ryan to San Francisco, and she's also the communications officer of the Asian Pacific American Student Union.

She's looking forward to "seeing other perspectives and what other universities offer to help students become culturally competent and involved."

Meals put on by international students and cultural groups on campus help establish a sense of community, according to Tan.

"Just getting together and cooking and preparing food is a part of networking, but it's also fun," she said. "Usually cooking, especially in such large quantities, can be tedious, but once you start talking and get the music going, it's really fun."

Cultural meals such as India Night are something the campus looks forward to all year, added Catalina Vlad, an International Students of OSU staffer and a senior majoring in nutrition.

"It really brings people together," said Parvathy Binoy, a senior majoring in political science and, along with Vlad, co-development coordinator of International Students. "You make a lot of friendships and bonds just cooking and celebrating."

In addition to the students putting on cultural meals, those who attend walk away with more than just sated appetites.

"Corvallis is a small place, and a lot of people coming to OSU are from even smaller towns around Oregon, so it's a great way to interact with people from all over the world," said Katy Schuff, a senior majoring in geography and event coordinator for International Students.

Mary Ann Albright covers higher education. She can be reached at maryann.albright@lee.net or 758-9518.